Karnataka: Scooter skids at 2am, duo carrying woman’s body lands in police net

BENGALURU: A road accident on Wednesday exposed the cold-blooded murder of a 22-year-old woman and a cover-up operation undertaken by her killers.
Two of the accused, who were transporting the woman’s body on a scooter to dispose it of in a secluded place, were arrested after their two-wheeler skidded at 2am in Ramanagara town, 40km from Bengaluru.
The victim is Sowmya from Tamil Nadu. The arrested are Durga, 22, her husband Raghu, 25, brother Nagaraj, 18, and Nagaraj’s friend Vinod, 23, all residents of Durga Parameshwari Layout near Rajarajeshwarinagar.
Ramanagara police said a passerby informed night-patrolling cops about the accident in front of the district administration office at 2am. When cops rushed to the spot, they found two youths standing next to the scooter with injuries and a woman lying motionless.
Police rushed all three to the government hospital in Ramanagara for treatment. Police initially thought the woman might have fallen unconscious or died in the accident. But doctors, who examined her body, informed them that she had died at least six hours before being brought to the hospital.
Police questioned the duo who revealed she had been murdered and they were transporting the body to Channapatna to get rid of it.
Nagaraj told police his sister Durga and brother-in-law Raghu asked for his help in disposing of Sowmya’s body and he, in turn, roped in his friend Vinod for it. Vinod was riding the scooter and Nagaraj was the pillion rider with Sowmya’s body in between them when the two-wheeler skidded while negotiating a curve. Based on Nagaraj’s statement, a team headed by BS Mohan Kumar, deputy superintendent of police (Ramanagara), swung into action and arrested Durga and Raghu from Channapatna.
Durga and Raghu ran a brothel in Bengaluru. Sowmya was residing with them for the last couple of months and she allegedly disappeared from the house with their jewellery on Monday. They found her after a few hours of searching, brought her back home and assaulted her. While Raghu hit her with a blunt object, Durga beat her with bare hands. Sowmya collapsed and died at 8pm.
The couple kept the body in the house till Tuesday and hatched a plan to dump it in the lake or burn it at an isolated place near Channapatna or Srirangapatna off Mysuru Road. They roped in Nagaraj and his friend Vinod. But their plan fell flat following the accident.
Sowmya’s body has been kept in Rajarajeshwari Medical College Hospital. Postmortem will be held after the arrival of her relatives.